Live on Wikipedia: Jennifer Dunn dies

At 9:12 a.m., minutes before P-I reporter Neil Modie learned about Jennifer Dunn’s death, and before it had hit any news site or could be found on a Google News search, the former Congresswoman’s death had already been reported on Wikipedia.

Its source? It was added at 9:19 — a breaking news alert from Twitter.

To Wikipedia’s credit, someone caught the dubiousness of that source within four minutes and removed the death date. At 9:22, it was gone.

Then, at 9:25, the date was back — this time as a sentence to start off the entry:

.

It was taken off yet again at 9:29 and came back at 9:31 within the parentheses, but without a citation.

That came at 9:33. A citation everyone could agree with — us. There were no further changes, except to add details to the circumstances of her death.

Wikipedia, it seems, works very much like a newsroom, except for one key difference: It doesn’t wait until something is confirmed to report it. Thanks to the Wikipedia model of reliability, however, a discerning reader can tell the difference between a credible report (which includes a citation and link to a credible report from a credible source) and uncredible rumor (a lack of citation or a link to an uncredible report).

Still, the fact remains — Wikipedia got the information out publicly before the news outlets did.

What do you think this says about the value of the site to the public forum?